School Dropout: A Major Barrier in Providing Education to All

Abstract

Literacy is one of the important components of socio-economic growth of any country. It is obvious that literate individuals could have better understanding about health and hygiene, appropriate opportunities for employment, family planning, their rights, duties and other current issues related to development of a nation. Despite putting best efforts at various levels the ultimate goal of ‘Education to All’ could not have been achieved sofar. There are several reasons for it but prominent among them is dropout in education. The dropout rate is different for different countries even though the reasons for it are different. These reasons are based upon socio-economic condition, facilities and belief system of a particular country. In India, the literacy rate has been increasing day by day but it is still lagging behind many countries. The dropout rate in education differs at various level including state, district and block. It also varies according to facilities, availability of schools, teachers and other basic amenities. However, the dropout rate is higher in backward area and disadvantageous groups. In order to control dropout rates and improve the efficiency of education system, there is an emergent need to understand the basic reasons for dropping out. This paper is an attempt to fill this gap by finding out major causes of school dropout. Furthermore, some corrective measure is also suggested to improve the educational system.